India home to 233 million hungry people

August 7, 2003

http://headlines.sify.com/2367news1.html?headline=India~home~to~233~million~hungry~people

New Delhi: India is home to the largest number of hungry people in the world, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

According to United Nations Development Programmes Human Development Report, India is home to 233 million hungry people, the Minister of State for Planning S B Mookherjee said in a written reply to the Upper House of Parliament.

The number of hungry people in the country are more than 183 million in Sub-Saharan African and 119 million in China.

The rest of East Asia has 74 million hungry people, Latin America 55 million and the Arab states 32 million.

"In South Asia one person in every four goes hungry, and in Sub-Saharan Africa this share is as high as one in three," he said.

Mookherjee said the UNDP's HDRD 2003 recognises that poverty has been dramatically reduced in India.

"It has commended India for making serious efforts towards achieving economic growth and reduction of poverty in the country which would contribute significantly, in turn, to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in the world by 2015," he added.

Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution V Sreenivasa Prasad said action has been in hand to ensure food security for all and to reform and improve the PDS for the benefit of the poorest of the poor in rural and urban areas.

PTI

I_love_krishna_ · August 7, 2003

The people in India are very poor. The middle class lives a good life, but it is horrible to see the poor suffer.

The thing that suprises me the most is the fact that every one is so uncaring for the poor in India. No one cares for people who beg, even one of my cousins there said... "there are too many of them, if you give one beggar something then every one else rushes to you"

When I sat in a bus station in southern India, an old lady sat down in the station and held a sign which said "I can't speak, I can't walk". She looked so weak, I took out 30 rupees and a banana and gave it to her and she was very happy just for that... and she was actually touching my feet.

There are also many kids who beg so that they can go to school.

The child labor laws in India suck! They don't help the poor families because the poor kid can't work and buy something to eat... Parents have to feed him.

I have read that there are government plans in India where the kid goes to school and the school gives him some bowls of rice for him and his family.

It is very sad to see people suffer so much.